Thunberg Confirms Abuse by Israeli Abductors, But Urges World to Focus on Gaza Genocide

While confirming that she and other Global Sumud Flotilla members were abused by Israeli forces who abducted and jailed them, Swedish climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg on Monday implored humanity to focus on the genocide in Gaza as it enters its third year.

"I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment. Trust me, but that is not the story," Thunberg said during a press conference at Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Greece, where she and other flotilla participants released by Israel were greeted by a cheering crowd.

"What happened here is that Israel, while continuing to worsen and escalate their genocide and mass destruction with genocidal intent, attempting to erase an entire population, an entire nation in front of our very eyes, they once again violated international law by preventing humanitarian aid from getting into Gaza while people are being starved," she continued.

"This genocide and other genocides are being enabled and fueled by our own governments, our institutions, our media, and companies. It is our responsibility to end that complicity... to use our privileges, our platforms, to take a stance against this, that is in every way unjustifiable," Thunberg asserted.

"I will never, ever comprehend how humans can be so evil that you would deliberately starve millions of people living trapped under an illegal siege as a continuation of decades and decades of suffocating oppression, apartheid, occupation," she added.

Thunberg's remarks came as Israeli forced continued their bombing and invasion of Gaza with the objective of conquering, occupying, and ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the strip. Israeli airstrikes—which have reportedly killed nearly 100 Palestinians over the past two days—continued despite US President Donald Trump's Friday exhortation to "immediately stop" bombing the embattled strip, citing Hamas' willingness to conditionally release the remaining Israeli and other hostages it has held since October 7, 2023.

Trump urged negotiators to "move fast" toward a ceasefire agreement ahead of Monday's indirect peace talks between Israel and Hamas in Egypt.

Since launching the assault and "complete siege" of Gaza following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, Israeli forces have killed at least 67,139 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry—whose figures are widely believed to be a vast undercount. Most of those killed have been women and children.

Over 169,500 Palestinians have also been wounded in Gaza and thousands more are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Most of Gaza's more than 2 million people have also been forcibly displaced, often multiple times, while hundreds of thousands of others are starving in an engineered famine that officials say has killed at least 460 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza including murder and forced starvation. Just under two miles away at the International Court of Justice, tribunal members are weighing a genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa and supported by around two dozen nations and regional blocs.

Thunberg and more than 400 other Global Sumud Flotilla members were intercepted last week by Israeli forces in international waters before being taken to Israel and jailed. Thunberg told Swedish officials Saturday that she had been "subjected to harsh treatment in Israeli custody."

“She informed of dehydration," a Swedish Foreign Ministry email noted. "She has received insufficient amounts of both water and food. She also stated that she had developed rashes which she suspects were caused by bedbugs. She spoke of harsh treatment and said she had been sitting for long periods on hard surfaces.”

Turkish flotilla activist Ersin Çelik said he witnessed Israelis abusing Thunberg.

"They dragged little Greta by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag," Çelik said. "They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others."

Italian journalist and flotilla member Lorenzo D’Agostino said that Thunberg was “wrapped in the Israeli flag and paraded like a trophy.”

Abducted flotilla members said they were humiliated by Israelis, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who called them "terrorists." This, from a man who in 2007 was convicted of incitement to racism and supporting the Kahanist terrorist group Kach.

D'Agostino told CNN Monday that “we were shocked by the level of humiliation and gratuitous cruelty that these people used on us."

"The way we were treated was... pushing the mistreatment and the humiliation to the limit that they could afford,” he said, explaining that his captors “knew that they couldn’t harm us physically” if activists were from countries like Italy.

“I was sharing my cell with a Turkish citizen whose arm was broken and he was left without painkillers for two days.”

“People coming from countries that are not allied [with Israel] were harmed physically,” D'Agostino added. “I was sharing my cell with a Turkish citizen whose arm was broken and he was left without painkillers for two days.”

Israel's Foreign Ministry said Sunday that flotilla members' claims of abuse are "brazen lies," and that “all the detainees’ legal rights are fully upheld.”

As of Monday, Israel had deported 341 of the 479 detained flotilla activists. The remaining detainees are either awaiting deportation or, in some cases—including one Spanish woman who allegedly bit an Israeli medic during a forced medical examination at Ketziot Prison—are facing extended detention.

The alleged abuse of flotilla detainees pales in comparison to what Palestinian prisoners have allegedly endured at the hands of their Israeli captors. Former detainees and Israeli personnel have described beatings, rape and sexual torture by male and female soldiers, routine amputations due to constant shackling, burnings, electrocutions, attacks by dogs, ice-water dousings, denial of food and water, sleep deprivation, constant loud music, and other abuse.

The Israeli military has launched investigations into the deaths of dozens of detainees at the notorious Sde Teiman prison, including one who died after allegedly being sodomized with an electric baton.

Another group of boats is currently en route from Europe in another attempt to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.

"As more ships set sail for Gaza, we are likely to see a repeat of these events," Amnesty International said Monday, referring to the alleged abuse of Global Sumud Flotilla activists. "States must act now and make clear to Israel that its suffocating blockade and its ongoing genocide against Palestinians must end now."